Life is Fluid Part II

Chapter 4: A Trip to Med

"We need to get you to Med," a voice breaks Jay from his thoughts as he looked across the driveway towards the direction of where Erin had gone walking. 

The whole interaction had left him caught off-guard. He thought she would have wanted to be there for him. He thought she would have shown more care. But yet she darted off, using the old clean-up excuse in the process. He knew he should be worrying about himself, but he was concerned about Erin and how she was doing. Would she be okay? 

"Jay, we need to go to Med please," Gabrielle repeats once again, in hopes of getting somewhere. She had not pushed the issue thus far with him, agreeing for the simple lead out of the house and sit on the back of the ambulance. Besides, there were others to take care of thanks to what happened within those walls. 

"I know," he simply replies, finally taking his eyes off of the direction she had ran off to look at the paramedic. He knew Gabrielle better than most. On top of her being his partner's sister, they had slept together once upon a time. He knew that meant she could read through any bullshit he tried to pull right now. It didn't mean it would stop him from trying, though. "Your brother kindly reminded me that it's required for any officer that was tortured to be checked out at the local hospital." 

"I can see the bloo-"

"Dried up blood." He then holds up the blue blouse that he wore to emphasize the point, in hopes it would win some brownie points. "I am fine, Gabby." 

"I don't believe you, Jay." She then walks over and brushes her hand across his forehead, holding out her hand afterwards to show him the red liquid that had been transferred over. "You are bleeding from the forehead. You also withstood 24 hours of being brutally tortured, by force of punches or electrocution." 

"I don't need you to remind me. I felt every bit of it. Like I said, I also got the reminder that this was a requirement." He then reaches for his own forehead, having felt a slight headache since coming out of the darkness of the house to the bright sunlight. Why was it so sunny that day? "Give me a cloth, let me hold it against it, and I will be fine." 

"It would much easier if you would just co-operate and do as I am requesting, please." She then climbs up inside the ambulance, holding out a hand for him. "I don't want to have to force you or restrain you. The sooner we co-operate together, the sooner we get to the hospital and get you checked out so you can head home. I bet you can't wait for your own bed tonight." 

"Your tac-"

"Jay, please?" He went to say something in return, but the heartbreak in her eyes reminded him of what he felt when she broke it off with him. It reminded him of what he felt when Erin began to throw her life away. He wondered if today had been enough to pull her out of the rabbit hole. "I promise to make it as easy on you as I can." 

"If it was any other paramedic, I would be walking my ass out of this ambulance...." He then turns around, taking a deep breath as he takes a step up and into the back. He then bites his tongue, hoping the pain he was feeling wasn't being shown through his facial expressions. Maybe there was a method to everyone's madness after all as these simple steps should not be hurting so much. "Can you promise me that I can go home tonight if I listen, though?" 

"I can't make that promise, but I will put in a good word for you." She then pats on the stretcher, as Jay lets out a sigh, taking the seat on it. He lays back, the bite on his lip growing as he does so. Why did his torso hurt so much? Why did it feel like it was on fire? 

"Fuck...." He could not hold it any longer, as she took the waistband straps, doing them up around him. She then glances into his eyes, the pain easily written there more so than she had noticed earlier. She had to be professional about this.

"You're going to be okay..." She then motions for the driver to head off, as she reaches the heart monitor and untangles the wires. "I need to monitor your heart rate, oxygen levels, and blood pressure as a result of the electrocution." She takes a cloth, placing it on his forehead, before taking his left hand and put it against it. "Hold that there. I don't want you to bleed out on my accord. Will would kill me. Could you see a paramedic, the sister of one of the most notorious detectives, killed by a doctor?" 

"You would kick Will's ass...." She chuckles a little in knowing that was true from the time she spent with Will. If Jay was the toughest son of a bitch she knew, his brother was the sweetheart that could not hurt a fly no matter how hard he tried. 

"I hope so. It would ruin my reputation if I couldn't." She then places a clip on one of the fingers on his right hand, followed by arm cuff around his arm. She then follow it up with a couple leads on his chest. She watches as the screen lights up with the results immediately. "Blood pressure is a little lower than they would like..." She makes a note of the numbers, as she lifts his shirt up a little on the left side. "Several serious kicks to your side, heavy discoloration, combined with low blood pressure could be due to kidney damage." 

"He kicked me several times. It..hurts..a little..." He takes a series of deep breathes, every bit of pain finally starting to come through that he hadn't felt over the past 24 hours in a single moment. He had followed the training given to survive. Now with his reservations dropped, the true feeling of what he went through was hitting him hard. 

"I would say so as these burns from the electrocutions don't look that good, either..." She then puts his shirt down, before looking back up at his eyes in noticing the bruise on the right side of his face. "I told you, though. You are going to be okay..."